Organizing corporate events such as conferences and group meetings takes a lot of planning and preparation. You may be wondering whether it’s a good idea to rent or outright purchase the audiovisual equipment you need for your next big corporate event. There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages to both options based on a number of specific factors that pertain to your business.
Here are a few reasons why you should consider working with a professional event audiovisual rental company in Toronto for your next big corporate event.
Tremendous Cost Savings
Purchasing audiovisual equipment can be extremely cost-prohibitive for a lot of reasons. Consider the total cost of ownership (TCO) of all of the equipment you need. TCO accounts for the upfront costs, maintenance, repairs, and storage. Plus, audiovisual technology can become outdated very quickly—usually in a few years—and needs to be replaced frequently.
Then there’s also the cost of learning how to use the equipment, training your staff to use it, or hiring professional technicians. If you’re going to take the latter route anyway, then you might as well hire a professional event audiovisual company to provide, setup, and manage the equipment for you whenever you need it. That way, you don’t have to pay extra for maintenance, repairs, replacements, or storage and you can invest your capital in other areas of your business that need it more.
Access to High-Quality Equipment
Unless you happen to be extremely tech-savvy, learning everything you need to know about all of the latest audiovisual equipment before your corporate event can be extremely challenging. Where do you even start? While the obvious answer might appear to be by doing research on the Internet or speaking to a salesperson at your local tech store, consider the fact that most commercial-use audiovisual equipment probably isn’t suitable for corporate presentations or events. You need access to more high-tech equipment and that can be difficult to acquire for an affordable price unless you’re well connected within the industry.
Professional audiovisual companies in Toronto have a vast network of connections that can get access to any equipment you need for your next big or small corporate event. From screen projectors to sound mixers, microphones, headsets, and more, every piece of equipment will undergo thorough quality assessments to ensure they’re in perfect working condition for your event.
Technical Expertise
Technical expertise is a valuable trait when it comes to selecting the most appropriate, high-quality, and affordable audiovisual equipment for your specific corporate event needs. When you purchase audiovisual equipment, everything from selecting the right tech to learning how to test and set it up falls squarely on your shoulders unless you have a designated audiovisual department on staff. If you don’t have an internal audiovisual department to handle the technical side of your business presentations, then you’re better off renting the equipment from a qualified event audiovisual company instead.
Typical services include a complete audiovisual equipment audit for your event, deployment, management during the event, and teardown after the fact. Qualified technicians know the ins and outs of each piece of equipment, so they can efficiently troubleshoot any technical glitches that may occur and execute a fast setup and teardown to maximize your time and space.
Frequency of Use
Frequency of use is another important factor to consider when deciding whether it’s more practical to rent or buy audiovisual equipment. If you plan on getting a lot of use out of the equipment, then it might make more sense to purchase it—especially if you’re going to use it every day or several times a week. But when you consider the upfront costs of purchasing high-tech equipment along with maintenance, repairs, part replacements, and technology’s short shelf-life, then you’ll probably want to reconsider going down that rabbit hole.
Renting the equipment from a professional audiovisual company offers you a lot more flexibility in the long run. Simply explain the nature of the event and expert technicians can recommend the right equipment to help realize your creative vision. Moreover, they’re usually available on the day of the event to setup, manage, and take the equipment away for you. You can even arrange a rental schedule that’s specific to your needs if you predict that you’ll need to use the audiovisual equipment on a regular basis.
Always Have a Backup Plan
Owning audiovisual equipment means that there usually isn’t a backup plan if it malfunctions or breaks down a day or two before your presentation or corporate event. Your only recourse would be to purchase new equipment at a hefty cost or see if you can rent the equipment you need.
Securing audiovisual services in Toronto ahead of time, however, ensures that you always have a feasible backup plan. Professional audiovisual technicians anticipate and prepare for potential technical issues ahead of time and they have the knowledge, skills, and resources to find palpable solutions even in a pinch.
Storage and Transportation
Finding affordable and feasible audiovisual equipment storage and transportation solutions for various corporate events can be tricky. Bulky audiovisual equipment such as sound mixers, speakers, screens, and amplifiers are heavy to lug around and take up a lot of space. Not only do you have to make sure that they’re stored properly in ideal conditions to preserve their already short shelf life, but you also have to pay an extra monthly fee to a storage facility. On top of that, transporting the equipment to your office or event venue when you need it can also get expensive.
Event audiovisual services in Toronto can minimize the hassle for a very low rental cost.
Where to Rent Audiovisual Equipment for Your Next Corporate Event
For over 20 years, Straight Street Event Services has been a first-rate audiovisual company in Toronto, the GTA, and throughout the Golden Horseshoe. We cater to a variety of public and corporate events including fundraisers, fashion shows, presentations, anniversary parties, product launches, theatrical productions, and so much more. Contact us today to learn about our event audiovisual rental services in Toronto.
